Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
A supermassive black hole in galaxy LID-568 is devouring material 40 times faster than physics predicts. Astronomer Julia Scharwächter calls it “a feast” that might explain how early Universe black holes grew so huge so quickly.
The Eddington limit, which dictates how much mass a black hole can consume, is being shattered. This super-Eddington accretion means the black hole is consuming matter faster than radiation pressure can push it away.
Friction and gravity heat the black hole’s accretion disk to extreme temperatures, making it blaze with light. This radiation usually slows down accretion, but in this case, it’s being overwhelmed as the black hole continues its feeding frenzy.
Astronomer Hyewon Suh’s team used the James Webb Space Telescope to find LID-568. Despite its faintness, JWST pinpointed its location, revealing an extremely bright galaxy with massive energy outflows from the voracious black hole.
LID-568’s brightness contradicts its small mass. At just 7.2 million times the mass of the Sun, this black hole shouldn’t be so luminous. Yet its accretion rate is sky-high, a staggering 40 times above the Eddington limit.
This rapid feeding episode should be incredibly brief. Suh and her team were fortunate to catch it in action, offering a rare opportunity to study super-Eddington processes that are crucial to understanding early black hole growth.
The extreme accretion hints at how early Universe black holes became giants. Evidence suggests they formed not from collapsing stars, but from massive gas clouds, growing rapidly in short, intense bursts like this one.
Suh’s research could be key to solving the mystery of supermassive black hole formation. Rapid accretion, combined with initial heavy seeds, may explain why some black holes grew so monstrous right after the Big Bang.
“The discovery of a super-Eddington accreting black hole,” Suh notes, “suggests significant mass growth can occur in one feeding episode.” This insight, published in Nature Astronomy, reshapes how we view black hole evolution.